


It's De-Lovely

by Lucky107



Series: Sailor Beware [8]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-14
Updated: 2016-07-14
Packaged: 2018-07-24 00:05:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7485165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucky107/pseuds/Lucky107
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>MacCready feels like he's standing on the outside, looking in at Reno's life before the war and he can only watch it play through without him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's De-Lovely

**Author's Note:**

> It's De-Lovely - Johnny Mathis - 1958

Reno's standing there with one arm around the boy's slim shoulders, a hand nested comfortably in his shaggy hair, and MacCready swears he sees a stranger in her eyes.

"You don't have to stay," she says and the small boy fists a handful of her jacket.  He clings to her waist like he's afraid, though there really isn't anything to be afraid of anymore, and it almost makes MacCready feel guilty for intruding to begin with.  "I know you have your hands full with Duncan as it is."

But this isn't right.

"No," he insists.  MacCready feels like he's standing on the outside, looking in at Reno's life before the war and he can only watch it play through without him.  It's terribly lonely.  "You stood by me - heck, you risked your life for Duncan - so there's no way I'm leaving you now."

Reno glances from MacCready to Shaun and then back to MacCready with skepticism.  She made the unpopular call to stand by her son—her real son—and support his visions of a better Commonwealth through the Institute.  "Shaun's—"

"I don't care what he is, Reno.  He could be a damn Super Mutant!"  This time, the younger man's outburst is emotional.  He tries to bottle it up, but sometimes her density can really test his limits.  "You've gone to Hel—heck and back for Shaun, and I'll be damned if I let that be the end of us."

He sees it, then, as the tears begin to form in her eyes.  She blinks them away, but they're replaced in a flash and before she knows it, she's lost control.  She's crying—she's crying because of him—so MacCready shatters that invisible wall between them by brushing the tears from her face.

"Damn it, MacCready," Reno murmurs, slinging her free arm around his neck.  Despite being a couple of years his senior, she's about a head shorter than him and has to reach up to hold him.  And boy, does she ever hold him.

He chuckles, a light rumble she can feel through his chest, and says, "'I love you' would suffice."


End file.
